SBP Reserves Fall by $119 Million in One Week

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank declined by 2.7 percent on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday. On May 19, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $4.193 billion, down $119 million compared to $4.312 billion on May 12. The central bank said in a statement that the decline in reserves was due to external debt repayments. Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $9.731 billion, down $206 million over the previous week. The net reserves held by banks stood at $5.538 billion, registering a decrease of $88 million during the week. The fourth consecutive decline in the central bank’s reserves has now pushed the country’s import cover to just 0.93 months. With little progress on the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the reserves could slide further in the coming days.